That Woman
by Janec Shannon
Summary: “You gave up that life, remember? To be with me,” Keiko told him matter-of-factly. He still stared at her, shocked. “I gave up the Spirit Detective stuff, not the people… not my friends.” YusxKei, Maybe shonen ai later
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I'm only putting this once at the beginning of the story. I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Never have and likely never will.

**Summary**: "You gave up that life, remember? To be with me," Keiko told him matter-of-factly. He still stared at her, shocked. "I gave up the Spirit Detective stuff, not the people… not my friends." YusxKei, Maybe shonen ai later

**Chapter One**

Keiko was woken up by the mutterings of her boyfriend. He was just talking in his sleep again.

"Kuwabara… damnit, you idiot… this is so STUPID…"

She smiled and laughed a bit, Yusuke was reliving his Spirit Detective days. She was so glad he had left that life behind him. Keiko knew he missed it, missed the fighting, the adventure, the life-or-death-save-the-world moments. To be honest, she didn't really care. He was safe. He was hers. All hers, no one else's.

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The next morning, Yusuke woke up to the phone ringing. He answered and Kurama's voice filled his ears, "Hello Yusuke. I'm arranging a get together tomorrow at Genkai's temple. Would you and Keiko be able to come?"

"I'd love to Kurama! Keiko isn't up yet though, so I can't say whether or not she'll be there."

Kurama laughed, "We'll be glad to see you with or without her. I'll see you tomorrow then," and with that they said their goodbyes. Yusuke, now in a very good mood, went to the kitchen to make breakfast for the two of them before Keiko had to leave for school and he for work. He'd used some of the money from his estate in Makai to start a ramen shop, it had done quiet well over the last 2 years. He wasn't rolling in riches, but he made a good enough living to support himself and Keiko. He even helped her a bit with her tuition for college when she needed it, though she usually got most of it covered with scholarships. Keiko came down just as he finished. Noticing he was in a good mood she smiled, until he told her why.

"No," she told him.

"Ok, I'll let them know you were busy."

"No, I don't want you to go either." He paused, fork stopping half-way to his mouth, and gave her a surprised look.

"Keiko…?" he said, silently asking if everything was alright.

"You gave up that life, remember? To be with me," she told him matter-of-factly. He still stared at her, shocked. It was a few moments before he got his wits back enough to put together an answer.

"Keiko, I gave up the Spirit Detective stuff, not the people… not my friends."

"What if this is a ruse, they get you there then turns out Koenma has a case for you. Isn't this a little sudden?"

Yusuke laughed, "First off, that woudn't be an absolutely horrible thing. Second, Koenma never _tricked_ me into cases, he'd send Botan. She'd outright tell me it was a case…What's gotten into you?"

Her face darkened but finally, ignoring the question, said, "Fine, I'll go."


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you guys so much for the reviews! This is technically my first fic in like 6 years, I published "Old Habits" first because it was a oneshot, but I actually started this one before that. I had planned on spacing out the finished chapters a little more to give me a chance to get over the writers block I hit, but I got such a great response to the first chapter I figured I'd treat you to one more chapter before I have to stop and do homework... I'm so glad you guys like it. J

Something that wasn't clear as I thought in the first chapter: Yes, Keiko and Yusuke are living in the same house and not married. This might seem out of character for her, but don't worry, all will be explained in later chapters.

Anyway, enjoy the next chapter and let me know what you think.

**Chapter Two**

Keiko spent the train ride to Genkai's trying to convince herself this wasn't Yusuke's fault. He couldn't possibly understand why she hadn't want to come, how could he? It was Kurama and the other's fault. Didn't any of them realize how much work it had taken her to calm Yusuke down and get him to settle into a normal life with her? They were doing this on purpose, to steal him from her. They wanted to keep him all to themselves. Well, she wasn't going to stand for that. Getting together with them would remind him too much of his old life, his old ways, he could leave her again. Perhaps, not coming back this time.

Keiki didn't want him to leave her again, so she had always told the others she and Yusuke were busy whenever one of them called for a get together. Yusuke never knew there even were any get togethers before this one.

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"Oi, Kurama!" Yusuke called to his friend as they arrived at the temple. Kurama smiled and excused himself from his conversation with Shizuru. "So why the sudden get together after all these years? What's it been, 2 years?" Kurama gave him a look he couldn't interpret, then looked at Keiko. He met her glare with an icy smile.

"Nothing special, Yusuke." Then, noticing both of them carried a dish covered with foil, "Why don't you give me the dish and go say hello to everyone? They'll be very pleased to see you, even Hiei has shown up. Keiko and I can go put these with the rest of the food."

"Thanks," Yusuke handed him the dish and Kurama noticed that there was the slightest spark of the fire in his eyes returning. Keiko noticed too, he could tell she was not pleased.

He smiled at her again, "This way Keiko." When they had put the food on the table, Keiko went to leave. He called her, when she pretended not to hear him he put his hand on her shoulder. "Keiko…" She had paused, but then shrugged off his hand and continued on. A few minutes after she had gone out the door, Hiei came in.

"I was right, Hiei."

"Hn."

Neither of their faces had changed but both were angry at this woman. Though Yusuke and Keiko hadn't seen them in 2 years, Kurama had been worried after constantly getting no better explanation than _'We're busy, sorry __***click***__'. _He'd confessed his worries to Hiei and even though Hiei had said _'It's the Detectives own fault for letting her do it to him. It's none of my business,'_ they both had occasionally spied on Yusuke. They both had slowly seen the light dim in their friend's eyes. They had heard the other humans around him saying this was because he was finally maturing, how well Keiko had done to finally tame him. They both had seen how, when he smiled, that smile didn't seem to reach his eyes the way it used to. They both had been very angered by this.

The other's in their group had given up on inviting him after the first year, assuming he and Keiko simply didn't want to see him. Kurama didn't want to tell them something he wasn't sure of, so he'd tried calling at different times, hoping to get Yusuke instead of Keiko. Finally he had.

None were sure why they didn't just go see him, tell him what she was doing. Obviously they could: they knew where he lived; they knew where he worked, so they could pop in there if they didn't want to see Keiko. Something held them back...


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone! Thank you to all those who reviewed. Those who didn't, please do J Love it, hate it, even just a "Please Update Soon".

Anyway, enjoy the next chapter!

**Chapter Three**

Yusuke was enjoying himself, he was in the middle of a conversation with Botan when she made a comment that confused him.

"We've missed you at these get togethers, I'm so glad you finally managed to make time to come to one!" Several of the others had made comments like this, each time Keiko had shown up and dragged him off before he could inquire what they meant. It hadn't taken him long to figure out something was going on that he wasn't privy to, he didn't like it. As he suspected, Keiko was quickly at his side.

"Botan! It's so good to see you, I haven't seen you in so long. Yusuke why don't you go find one of the boys to catch up with. Give us girls a chance to catch up." She smiled sweetly at him, he found it too sickeningly sweet to be real, but he said nodded to Botan. It would take her a few minutes to "catch up" enough she could leave Botan and intrude on his conversation again. He looked around and spotted Kurama, he was re-arranging the food to get rid of some of the empty dishes.

"Oi, Kurama?" The redhead looked up. "I gotta ask you something… This isn't the first get together you guys have had in the last two years, is it?" He already knew the answer, but he needed to hear it.

"No, Yusuke. We see each other quiet often actually, you and Keiko are the only ones we really don't see a lot of. Well, besides Hiei, but we never saw a lot of him before anyway." Yusuke opened his mouth but Kurama cut him off, knowing what he was about to ask. "We've tried to invite you. Every time one of us called, Keiko answered and said the two of you were busy. We began to worry you wanted nothing to do with us."

"Oh…" He trailed off into thought. He vaguely noted Keiko had shown up at his side again. He didn't hear what she was saying, he just turned and walked away. He didn't stop when she called out to him or when she started yelling at Kurama. He needed to be alone for a while, suddenly a lot of things from the past two years clicked and he couldn't believe he'd never seen it.

"Detective." Hiei's voice started him out of his thoughts, he hadn't noticed he'd wandered to the sparring yard.

"Hey Hiei," He said, happy to finally get a chance to catch up with the fire demon.

"Hn, fight?" He was surprised at Hiei's interest in his fight with Keiko. He opened his mouth to answer, but Hiei read his face, "I wasn't talking about your fight with _that woman,_" the way he practically spat out _that woman_ dripped with hatred and resentment, "I meant would you like to fight? I doubt you've had a decent sparring partner in the last two years." This caused Yusuke to smile, this was Hiei's way of saying he missed him.

"Yeah. You're right, I haven't." With that, he took off his shirt and moved to the center of the yard. "Whenever you're ready."

"Hn," was all that was said, then suddenly there was a blur of motion. Yusuke had not fought in 2 years so he was a little rusty, but it came back to him quickly. Hiei wasn't using his katana, nor were they putting any ki into the attacks. They didn't actually want to do any damage, this was just for fun. And it was fun…up until Keiko's voice shrieked,

"STOP!" They ignored her and she wasn't stupid or fast enough to try to get in between them. "YUSUKE!" He sighed and nodded to Hiei.

They both stopped. He turned and looked at her, though he didn't move from his place at the sparring yard. "What? What Keiko? What could you possibly need now? For the last hour you haven't let me have a decent conversation with anyone. Is there something you want to tell me?" She didn't answer, she didn't know how to answer. Finally Yusuke did move, he walked over to her and coldly whispered, "I figured it out, already. You can go if you want, I'm staying here." Then turned back to Hiei, nodded and the fight resumed.


	4. Chapter 4

Ok time for Chapter 4. I really meant to post this earlier this week, but I just didn't have the time. Unfortunately that also means I really haven't had a lot of time to work on more chapters either -_-; But don't worry! I will get them to you as quickly as I can!

I do have a question though, I see this fic ending two ways… Keiko learns her lesson and they stay together, or they split and Yusuke falls in love with one of the boys. Which one would you prefer? I can't promise I'll do what you want, but I'll definitely take it into consideration.

As always, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I look forward to hearing what you have to say about this chapter.

**Chapter Four**

Yusuke sat staring at the moon from the porch outside his room at Genkai's temple. Keiko had left. He had stayed. He didn't plan on going back for at least a few days, but he didn't think he'd be returning permanently any time soon… if ever. He'd called one of his managers at the restaurant and informed her he wouldn't be able to come in for awhile, could she please take over for a bit? She had accepted asking if he knew when he would be back. He told her he didn't know, but he would make it a point to at least stop by before the coming weekend. _Today's Wednesday,_ he glanced at his watch, _Thursday. That gives me a few days to figure out what I'm gonna do about this… At least Grandma said I could stay here as long as I want._

Hiei watched Yusuke just stare at the moon for several hours, debating whether or not to say anything. Yusuke seemed like he needed some kind of… comfort… or at least some company. He didn't really know how to offer any comfort, but decided that perhaps his presence would be enough and appeared next to the detective. Neither said anything to the other. Hiei began to wonder if he even noticed his presence when Yusuke finally spoke,

"I know what you're going to say." Hiei stayed silent, waiting for him to continue. Yusuke chuckled bitterly, "It's my own fault, isn't it? I let her. How could I have not seen it. Every time I would suggest going to see any of you guys, she would say that everyone was busy with their own lives. Kurama and Kuwabara were busy with school, you were off who knows where, Genkai is old and probably wants her rest, Botan would be too busy ferrying souls to even think about the short time she'd spent with us. I don't even have a way to get a hold of her and Pacifier Breath. How did I not see it?"

Hiei sighed and sat down next to him. That was exactly what he was going to tell him: it was his own damn fault, but now he couldn't. One, because he didn't want the detective to think he had actually predicted what he was going to say and two, it seemed like the detective seemed like he needed more than the brutal truth. '

"Yes, Detective, it is your fault. You are too trusting. Did you honestly believe every single one of your friends would just suddenly never want to see you again?" _The brutal truth is all I can offer him…_ He thought, for once wishing he'd paid a little more attention to the sniveling humans that often sat under his tree at the park.

"I was gone for three years, Hiei."

"So you decided, what the hell? Why not make it 5?" Hiei snorted.

"I - I…"

"You what, Detective?" He was getting frustrated; he didn't really know what to say and the entire situation itself pissed him off. Yusuke made no attempt to talk again so Hiei Hn-ed and flitted off to find the fox.

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Hiei sat in Kurama's window sill staring at the tree outside the window. He hadn't said anything since he'd showed up, just sat there and stared. "Do you know what she was thinking, fox?" he asked absently.

"Who?"

"_That woman_," he spat the words with the same hatred he'd used the day before. The fox sighed.

"We may not like her but she does have a name, Hiei. I don't know what she's been thinking these last two years. I'm not sure I really want to. Based on what she yelled at me when I told him we've been inviting them for the last two years, I'd say she's somehow got it into her head that we're going to steal him away from her… I've no idea where she would have gotten that from though…"

Hiei continued to stare out the window, remembering her thoughts when she had shrieked at them to stop. He'd hoped reading her thoughts would shed some light on the situation. He wasn't sure if it had helped or only stood to confuse him more. He decided to let Kurama figure it out: mind games were always his specialty.

"When she caught us sparring, the first thing that popped into her mind was '_He's going to kill him, after all these years he's going to take his revenge and kill him._'" This made Kurama laugh which, in turn, made Hiei glare at him.

"Are you surprised? You remind him of your impending revenge nearly every time you talk to him."

"Hn," So what if it was true, something still felt off about the whole thing.


	5. Chapter 5

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. :D Spring break is almost over so I should have more time to write fics soon (I've been working almost all week so I really haven't had much of a chance to even think about my stories.) Heh I'm at a terrible writers block right now anyway. I know exactly what I want to happen but the words just don't want to seem to come out onto the page...

**Chapter Five**

Genkai sat sipping tea while staring at the fire. Yusuke was like a grandson to her, she hadn't been overly fond of Keiko, but the girl had seemed to make him happy at the time. She'd acted oddly those three years he wasn't around. Not enough that anyone would notice at the time it had been so gradual, but there was definitely a stark difference between the girl Yusuke had left and the girl he came back to. It had apparently gone down hill from there, though they hadn't seen it because they just didn't see her. Or Yusuke. Her thoughts now turned more to the man, _Yes, he's definitely become a man now, _she thought to herself and stole a glance at him. She could tell he hadn't been getting a lot of sleep, she knew exactly what he was doing. Yusuke was acting as normal as he could so they wouldn't realize how troubled he was over this. Not that she blamed him, everyone was. She stole another glance at him and decided that if he didn't some sleep tonight she would train him into exhaustion. Exhausted sleep was better than none. Having made her decision, she gave a curt nod and went back to staring at the fire.

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Hiei had noticed Yusuke's sleeping patterns as well (or lack there of) and had mentioned it to Kurama. He wanted to help the detective but he simply didn't know how. Comforting words had not been a part of his childhood, nor really any other part of his life, he felt it best to leave this to the fox. Kurama decided he would spend Friday night at Genkai's temple.

That night, Yusuke sat outside his room as he had every night since the picnic. Kurama watched him for a while, simply observing. He walked up to stand by Yusuke, quietly waiting for him to make the first move. They stood there saying nothing, watching some clouds cover the moon.

"I'll have to go get clothes eventually, the few pairs of training outfits I have here won't last long. God, I'm amazed you guys kept them… I promised Kaname I'd come check in on the restaurant anyway…" catching Kurama's quizzical glance he added, "Kaname is one of the managers at my restaurant. I asked her to watch over the store for a bit while I get some things sorted out. I promised her one way or the other I'd come check up on the place and make sure she's handling it alright. Not to mention it's payday tomorrow, I gotta go sign the checks. "

"That was very kind of her," Kurama said, really just an acknowledgement to let Yusuke know he was listening.

"Aye, she's a kind girl. She needs the money anyway, she's getting married in June. The guy seems nice enough I guess, I've only met him a couple times. I worry about her though, she's so young to be getting married…"

Kurama laughed at this and sat down next to his friend. "Yusuke, you are hardly one to talk, if I recall correctly, _you _proposed to Keiko when you were 15, you may not have gotten married, but you still proposed. Besides, you aren't very old yourself. You're only 20..." Yusuke gave him a goofy grin,

"Yeah, but I feel like I'm a lot older." It was said as a joke, but Kurama knew it was the truth. They continued on like this for a while, not really talking about anything, until they once again fell into silence. It was nearly an hour before either spoke again.

"You should get some sleep Yusuke. I can go with you tomorrow to pick up some clothes if you would like some company." He was rewarded with another one of Yusuke's goofy grins and an enthusiastic thanks as Yusuke got up to finally get some sleep.

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I think I might have said this before, but these chapters seem alot longer in my word processor... Anyways, let me know what you think. Hopefully I'll get over that writers block soon...


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